1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a telephone communication system and method of use, and more specifically to a system and method of use where a single calling number is assigned to multiple telephone devices.
2. Background Information
With improving technological advances in the electronic location devices art, people are expected to be reachable at any location and at any time. For this purpose it is known for people to have many means of communications, such as a home telephone, a personal wireless telephone, a pager, a work wireless telephone, an office telephone, a computer, a car telephone, etc.
When a person or family or business or group of people have one or all of these methods of communication, it is increasingly difficult to know how to best reach the intended person, family or group. One known option for locating one of these persons, families or groups is by call forwarding. Call forwarding may work in two separate manners. In the first type of call forwarding incoming calls to an original phone number are forwarded to a phone associated with a second number. The phone associated with the second number rings as if the call were to the second number. The phone associated with the original number will beep once indicating to a user that the calls to that number are being forwarded to another number. Calls may be made from the phone associated with the original number, but call may not be received at that phone.
The second type of call forwarding works by having a telephone system that allows a user to enter other numbers to which a call is forwarded if the user knows they will not be at or be able to pick up a specific phone. Although convenient for locating someone, this type of call forwarding may result in the caller staying on the line for a long period of time, requires each phone to have call forwarding capabilities, only allows a message to be left with the telephone of the final calling number the call is forwarded to and requires each telephone or communication device to have a separate and distinct 10-digit calling number.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,274,782 to Forte attempts to solve some of the complications of call forwarding noted above. Forte provides a system for establishing communication with a plurality of telephone devices, having multiple telephone numbers, after a caller has called a central telephone number. This system is advantageous over call forwarding because it allows for users to pick up the incoming call at any telephone that has a calling number associated with the central calling number. Further, Forte's system allows for outgoing calls to be made from one of the telephone devices that have a calling number associated with the central number in order to decrease long distance costs if the user is traveling outside of a local calling area.
However, both call forwarding and Forte's system require each telephone device to have a separate telephone number. The number of telephone numbers has increased substantially in recent years as more types of communication devices are made available. This creates at least two problems. First, the increase of calling numbers results in one person having to commit many different 10-digit calling numbers to memory in order to either quickly provide others with their numbers or in order to be able to quickly contact other people. Second, with an increasing amount of numbers being used and associated with each new communication device, and no end in sight for the distribution of calling numbers, it is a real problem that the community will use all available 10-digit numbers.
Further, it is known to have a single number assigned to multiple telephone devices. In European Patent Application, EP 1,146,764 A2 to Duerk, Duerk discloses multiple wireless units with the same telephone number. In Duerk, only one telephone number is assigned to multiple wireless units having separate Electronic Serial Numbers (ESNs), which reduces the number of telephone numbers and allows for multiple users to answer an incoming call or join an outgoing call. In addition to the system of Duerk, it is known for large businesses to have internal systems that involve using a landline device and a mobile device in conjunction with one another while having one and only one calling number for the two devices. While the prior art has provided examples of improved systems for locating a person, family or group, there is always room for further improvement.